13 November 2011

Brush Canyon

Bronson Canyon Park

I joined the geeks for another hike, this one to pass through the old "Bat Cave" of the Batman TV show and up to the Hollywood sign. I was sort of in the neighborhood and I have managed to never be anywhere near the remains of the Hollywoodland sign, so I thought I might go. Besides, Bat cave! So I got there and waited for more to come and found some new folks trying it out for the first time and then a few old folks and finally our leader, uncharacteristically late. Once gathered, we headed up the road and took the right at a fork to get to the "cave".

Apparently, this is the Bat Cave, or at least the entrance, even though it is not a cave at all.

After poking around the tunnel, which had a couple more off it before getting all the way through, we headed back to the fork and took the left to start climbing toward the sign. We had a fair bit of up to do to get up to it, but initially went a little bit too far, getting over the hill to see out to the valley on the other side.

A pretty good view of the Hollywood sign from below and far enough out to actually see it.

Getting a little bit too far up along a wrong path gives a good vantage of the canyon.

Topping the hill and coming down the other side, we got a good view of Glendale.

Figuring we had gone the wrong way, our leader geekily used some of the ample signal at the top to find a map of the numerous roadways and determine where we should have been going. We turned back to head correctly, but lost a half of our walkers when we turned down a new road. They decided they'd had a long enough hike. The other half quickly found themselves up above the sign looking out over Hollywood.

A couple letters and some of the vast land area bounded by the Los Angeles city limits.

A fence was erected to keep us from actually going right up to the sign, at least if you ignore the unlocked gate in the middle of it. A number of walkers and a few cars were using a road below to get a glimpse of the sign. They don't get as interesting a view of it, of course.

Not everyone is happy with all the traffic behind their homes, though, so they've left a sign for the tourists. I'm told this is for the ones actually on the road. Unfortunately, tourists don't turn around.

Just a few hills over is the Griffith Observatory.

Just off to the side, Hollywood's water is stored is Silverlake.

The view from the very top of the hill is a little bit better.

We all had a few snacks at the top as it was getting well into lunchtime and there was plenty of view to enjoy. Then we meandered our way back down to our various cars to go our separate ways.